The internet outage which hit Nigeria and some other African countries may persist for up to five weeks, according to latest reports.
One of the undersea cable companies affected by the service disruptions, MainOne, said in a statement on Friday evening that the situation might persist for two to three weeks for the problem to be fixed.
It explained that investigations revealed that the fault came from an external incident that resulted in a cut on the submarine cable system in the ocean.
MainOne said the rectification of the fault involves identifying and assigning a vessel to “retrieve the necessary spares required for repair, and then sail to the fault location to conduct the repair work. This process might take one to two weeks for repairs while about two to three weeks of transit time may be required for the vessel to pick up the spares and travel from Europe to West Africa once the vessel is mobilised”.
The country has experienced widespread internet disruptions as a result of damage to the international underwater cables that provide the nation with connection. The outage has impacted banks and telecommunications organizations that depend on the impacted cables for internet services.
Major undersea cables close to Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, are reportedly damaged, and this has caused internet outages in West and South African nations. The West Africa Cable System (WACS), the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), MainOne, and SAT3 are the undersea cables that have been impacted.
Glo 1, which is owned by Globacom, the largest provider of digital services in Nigeria, was untouched by the damage and is still running as usual. Glo 1-powered financial institutions, internet service providers, and data consumers have all carried on with business as usual.
Industry observers are of the view that Glo 1 International Submarine Cable’s resilient construction and durability are the reasons the damage did not compromise the cable.